Bhavan Public school, Mayur Vihar, pays reverence to the Divine soul of its late #founderchairman- Sh. G.C. Lagan. Walking on the path of #kindness directed by him, a few students and teachers of the school shared some souvenirs of joy and cheer on the occasion of #Christmas with little kids of Grace Home, Village Kanawli, Indirapuram.
“The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful than thousand heads bowing in prayer.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
On October 24 and 25, 2020, UNESCO MGIEP (Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development) and global partners hosted the 2nd World Youth Conference on Kindness centred on the theme Kindness for Peaceful and Sustainable Co-existence, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the UN and to re-affirm the central role of empathy, compassion, and kindness to achieve the SDGs.
In order to build more peaceful and sustainable societies, in 2015, the Member States of the United Nations agreed to 17 unique Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030. To achieve these goals and live in a more harmonious world, it is vital that youth be given maximum opportunities to acquire social and emotional skills with the spirit of ‘co-existence’.
The Conference provided global youth leaders and policymakers with an innovative, and engaging platform to discover innovative pathways for achieving the SDGs, build the social and emotional capacities of youth, and enhance the momentum for a new International Day of Kindness for Humanity.
The second edition of the World Youth Conference on Kindness celebrated the importance of ‘Kindness’ during the global pandemic as thousands of people from around the world called upon the United Nations’ Member States to declare an International Day of Kindness for Humanity.
The Conference was held virtually and saw debates on critical issues involving the youth such as UN Multilateralism and Kindness for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A key outcome of the Conference was the adoption of a declaration led by the youth – calling upon governments to declare the International Day of Kindness for Humanity. The Global Youth Alliance for Kindness, created as a key outcome of the first World Youth Conference on Kindness in August 2019, presented a new 2020 Global Youth Declaration on Kindness (GYDK) calling on governments to give them more opportunities to achieve the SDGs.
Bal Bhavan fraternity has always firmly abided by its motto ‘Goodness Before Greatness’. We believe that no education is complete until it makes us humane, kind, and empathetic towards others. The current pandemic has created a feeling of fear, chaos, terror in our minds and heart, and the only solace to it was the unconditional support that we received from others and the absolute care that we extended to others. It is this care and support that proved to be worthy than anything else.
With a vision to make this world a better place to live, we wish to sensitize our students and the community around the school, hence we are joining hands in an initiative #Kindness Matters, Global campaign by UNESCO MGIEP. UNSESCO MGIEP focuses on achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4.7 towards education for building peaceful and sustainable societies across the world by developing programmes that promote social and emotional learning, innovate digital pedagogies, and empower the youth.
The purpose of #Kindness Matters project is to mobilize young minds to be kind and compassionate with their transformative acts of kindness. We wish to make everyone around us to be mindful of their actions. This shall help create an empathetic, compassionate, and kind society. The campaign will be instrumental in passing the resolution for International Day of Kindness.
Thus, we invite our students, teachers, parents, and alumnus to share their Kindness stories with us. The more you contribute, the closer we come to create a historic day. The best Kindness stories shall be uploaded on the school’s webpage and shall find their way in the monthly newsletter – ‘The School Connect’ every month.
So why wait? Share your act of kindness now and transform lives.
*You can submit multiple acts of kindness.
Goodness cannot be preached; it is nourished by the Great souls who imbibe in them the value of ‘Goodness before Greatness’. The seeds of these values have been sown by the founder Chairman of the school, Late Sh. G.C. Lagan ji. His ardent effort to nurture humane values in every Bal Bhavanite are still visible in the practices of the school.
The school promotes the culture of sensitivity and care not only towards all human being and living creatures but to the mother nature also. The schools Eco- Club is working earnestly to create awareness and sensitize masses towards adopting environment friendly practices. Organizing awareness rallies to prohibit use of crackers during Diwali, hosting Van Mahotsava in its premises, providing students with the opportunities to use their skills to aware masses through video presentations and making use of social media are to mention a few initiatives that the school took to inculcate the values of kindness & compassion amongst students towards Mother Earth.
The idea ‘Give best to the world and the best will come back to you’ propelled by the Director of the School, Sh. B.B. Gupta encourages students to come forward and become the change leaders. The school under his leadership is named amongst few schools who installed Solar Power Plant to generate its own electricity and share the sustainable source of energy with the society by sharing the extra power generated with BSES Power Plant. The school also has its own Rain Water Harvesting System (RWHS) that allows the rain water to penetrate into the ground to help raise the ground water levels.
The school also has its own Organic Terrace Garden where the students visit periodically to bring them close to nature. The school’s Principal, Sh. Vividh Gupta initiated #MainBhiGandhi project in September 2019 to create awareness about waste segregation at source. The school fraternity joined their hands to combat the harmful effects of dumping the waste without segregation. The school support staff was trained personally by the school Principal, who then led their helping hand in guiding the students to segregate waste at source. The school students volunteered and painted all school bins into Blue and Green. The Blue bins were kept to collect dry waste while all kitchen / wet waste is discarded in green bins. The waste from blue bins is used in recreating items that are further sold to parents by students during PTMs. The funds collected are utilized towards NGOs that help the orphans and children of ragpickers. The wet waste is consumed as manure prepared after composting.All the paper waste of the school is used in the Paper Recycling Unit, that could be used in art classes or prepare invitations for guests visiting the school.
The vision of the school principal to create school – a ‘Zero’ waste zone is not only helping the environment but is also providing students an opportunity to Stop and Think about the catastrophe that the human race is causing to our planet. ‘Kindness begins from home’, and the #MainBhi Gandhi project best propels this idea. The students of the school not only get sensitized towards their environment but also develops the human value of kindness, compassion, care through such initiatives.
It is rightly said that the ‘Values cannot be learnt they can be inherited’. The involvement of the students in such action-oriented projects is certainly an aid to build kind and compassionate society.